Psalm Types

The Psalms are divided in a couple of different ways. In the “Introduction to the Psalms” I gave a list of how they were divided into five books. There is a further breakdown into more specific types, depending upon the tone of each individual Psalm.

Below, I list the Psalm number first, then the type of Psalm and follow with a short description of what you might find in that type.

There are probably as many ways to classify the Psalms as there are people who want to classify them. I searched several resources and found some that are very simple and useful; one, I found, went so far as to classify individual verses in a Psalm.

I have pooled the best resources and made one big table of classification. You’ll see some Psalms listed twice in various categories. That’s fine. Each Psalm is likely to have different characteristics that fit into a couple of different categories. For instance, the Psalmist could have a lament in the first part, an imprecatory prayer half-way through and end up in the thanksgiving category.

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